


Threat Assessment

by Badwolf36



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Episode: s03e19 Letharia Vulpina, Gen, Introspection, Post-Episode: s03e19 Letharia Vulpina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 14:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1230403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Badwolf36/pseuds/Badwolf36
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek is pretty sure the first thing he feels after being the target of a bomb attack shouldn't be flattered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Threat Assessment

**Title:** Threat Assessment

 **Fandom:** Teen Wolf

 **Rating:** PG-13

 **Characters:** Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski, Chris Argent

 **Word count:** 1,485

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Teen Wolf or any related properties.

 **Warnings:** Tag to _"Letharia Vulpina."_

 **Summary:** Derek is pretty sure the first thing he feels after being the target of a bomb attack shouldn't be flattered.

 

He’s sort of impressed, and honestly a little bit flattered.

He’s pretty sure those are feelings he should not be experiencing when he’s in severe pain because his back has been impaled with nails and glass and wood shards propelled by a bomb that was meant to kill him.

But he _is_ impressed. Stiles, or the Nogitsune, had been smart enough to see Chris Argent and himself as threats. And to further its unknown goals, it’d framed them for murder, got them to the Sheriff’s Office, and then blew it up with them inside to take them out of the picture.

The flattery comes from being seen as a threat, even as he is now, which is pretty much an omega because he’s not really sure if he has any standing in Scott’s pack aside from being a werewolf consultant of sorts.

Being identified as a threat is strange though, when he really thinks about it. Derek hasn’t had any contact with the creature because he hasn’t had any contact with Stiles. All his information about Stiles (about the Nogitsune, and possible brain diseases, and potential murders) since he’s returned to Beacon Hills has come from Scott, Aiden, Kira, and Stiles’ scent. Which means that _Stiles_ had been the one to see him as a threat, and the creature had used that knowledge for its own ends.

It’s sort of gratifying to know Stiles sees him as an apex predator because Stiles, no matter the danger Derek presented, always acted like he wasn’t scared of him, even when his chemosignals said otherwise. It makes something uncomfortable twist in Derek’s gut as well though, because Stiles has been one of the few people to ever stand up to Derek, to make him examine his choices, and to save his life without expecting anything in return (and that particular bit of truth had taken a long time to sink in). To be seen as a danger to Stiles (someone he has tried his best to protect) is actually sort of painful, which he hadn’t expected.

Argent is yelling something at him, but his eardrums are still healing, so he responds that he’s okay. Argent…Chris…is telling him that he saved his life, something Derek had promised just minutes earlier that he wasn’t going to do. It’s a strange feeling, helping an Argent after everything the members of that family had done to his. He tries not to dwell on it too long. His back is still a dartboard, each wound a tiny point of agony as his body tries to heal around the embedded material.

He wonders if Stiles is in agony. That bomb had not only been in the Sheriff’s office, it had been in Stiles’ dad’s office. He and Chris may have been the primary targets, but Sheriff Stilinski could have just as easily been sitting behind his desk. The Nogitsune could have wiped out all three of them and been free to pick off the others at its leisure, wearing Stiles’ grief like a disguise to lure them in.

Derek knew what it felt like to have someone manipulate him to the point of murder, but that’s where his comprehension stopped. Because while Jennifer, the Darach, had gotten into his head and under his skin, it hadn’t been in the very literal way that the Nogitsune is under Stiles’. He’d been able to make a conscious choice about his actions, his mother’s words echoing in his head and giving him extra strength. He’s not sure Stiles has that luxury anymore. Stiles had fought back against the Nogitsune on the hospital’s roof, thrown himself into that battle with desperation and fear and determination and the electrical system had been sabotaged anyways.

Stiles, bereft of his stupid metal baseball bat, is losing his own personal war.

People are dead because of Stiles, because of the thing using him. He _murdered_ someone just to have an excuse to get him and Chris out of the way. And Derek _really_ has to rethink the assessment of Stiles he gave to Aiden.

Because Stiles, the real Stiles, isn’t just some skinny, defenseless kid who talks too much. He’s the guy who smashed a bat over the combined head of the Alpha twins. He’s the guy who sacrificed himself just for a chance to save his father. He’s the guy who held Derek up in a pool for two hours and saved the lives of Scott and Boyd and Isaac and even Ethan, an enemy, at that damned motel. He’s the guy who comforted Derek after Boyd’s death like he couldn’t see the blood on Derek’s hands that marked him as nothing more than a weapon. And he’s the guy who has turned countless pieces of random information into big pictures and decent plans that have kept most of them alive.

Whatever Stiles had been before all this, he’s become something completely different, something capable of fighting back against the Nogitsune, even if it’s just for a moment, even if it’s just for a chance to protect those important to him.

And Derek can appreciate that, now more than ever. After the conversation with his mother, after hearing her calm voice explain to him what guarding Beacon Hills really meant, he understood exactly why he felt so drawn to Stiles, even during the times he hated him, or resented him, or barely tolerated him, or only gave him grudging respect.

Chris is steering him somewhere to sit down and he doesn’t jerk away from him like he thinks he should. He ends up on a metal bench somewhere out of the way, and Chris is gone when he manages to look up. He thinks he hears, distantly, Stiles, and Scott, too, but his hearing is still ringing from the explosion.

If he was the Derek of a few years ago, he’d force himself up, run to wherever Stiles is, and slit his throat with his claws so that the Nogitsune would die with him. If he were still an alpha, he’d already be healed by now, ready to slam Stiles back into the station wall and threaten the fox out of the teenager with sheer power and force.

But Derek is a predator, not a killer. He’s an omega, not an alpha. And Stiles is worth protecting, not sacrificing as collateral.

It’s not even that much of a stretch anymore for Derek to acknowledge, at least to himself, that he cares about what happens to Stiles, cares about him, period.

Derek can hear the screaming and crying inside the Sheriff’s Office more clearly now, and figures his hearing must be completely back. He also doesn’t hear Stiles anymore, and it’s a bitter pill to acknowledge that he missed whatever chance he might have had to do something for him.

Derek starts pulling off his jacket, trying to keep his fangs back because his control always gets a little tenuous when he’s in pain and now is not the time for someone to see him.

He also starts to plan. He could run now, but like Chris said, being a fugitive won’t do anyone any good. So they’ll be rearrested, because an explosion that almost killed them doesn’t conveniently wipe out the fact that they’re under suspicion for murder.

Derek winces as his leather jacket starts to peel away from his bloodied back and takes nails and bits of glass and wood with it. He grits his teeth and keeps going, because someone will ask questions if they see him like this and then find him completely fine and unmarked moments later.

He gets his jacket off and dumps it in a nearby trash can with a sigh because he’d liked that jacket. He then sucks in a few deep breaths as his body finishes pushing out the sharp intruders, causing a short-lived rain that falls on the floor beneath him.

When it’s done and he feels somewhat okay again, he twists around and looks through a blown-out window back into the bullpen. He sees the Sheriff and Chris leaning over a prone body. He meets Chris’ eyes and knows what he has to do.

The Nogitsune had tried to take them out because they were threats to its existence. It wasn’t wrong.

So Derek is going to sit in a cell next to Chris Argent, a man he can’t trust, and convince him that Stiles (and he has to hope that Stiles has no part in this, has to believe that Stiles couldn’t hurt people like this, has to have faith that a man who fights back is one worth saving) shouldn’t be put down just to take out the thing possessing him.

Everything else (including how much of _Stiles_ they will really get back if they succeed) can come after.

The Hale family has always protected Beacon Hills. And Derek Hale is going to protect Stiles Stilinski, even from himself.


End file.
